Here we go again.
A short time ago, Trump ordered a new invasion of another American city, and this time, he’s turned the incitement dial all the way up.
Now, the natural reaction to this kind of nonsense is outrage, and outrage is exactly what we’re all seeing coming from the people of Portland, the civic leaders they elected, and from decent Americans all over the country. And that is the intended response.
With the inevitable release of the Epstein files becoming a larger and larger fear for Trump and his network of rich sexual deviants, distraction is about the only defense they have left. And distraction can only delay things a bit. Whether it comes by way of a leak or a law, the files will become public. We are only haggling over when it will finally happen. And make no mistake – Trump is ordering troops into American cities at least in part to keep us from talking about his decades of sexual abuse and the many victims he left behind. This is not the only reason Trump is committing yet another impeachable offense, but it’s certainly high on the list.
What’s perhaps most notable about this most recent set of illegal orders is that Trump appears to be asking, perhaps even begging for violence. And the reason for this is obvious if we look at his most recent failed invasions.
To understand the colossal failure of these silly but dangerous maneuvers, we need only look at what has transpired during them. They all start with a declaration from Trump about American cities “overrun by crime.” Yet when the troops arrive, no one bothers to visit any of the places where Trump says this crime wave exists. What I mean is, if the troops were there to take on the so-called “violent immigrants” then why are there no pitched battles in the streets against well-armed and organized gangs? If these cities are in fact overrun by dangerous criminals, why does ICE invade a city just to arrest Grandma at her court hearing while the National Guard spreads mulch in the city park, as they did when Trump invaded DC?
That said, any time we place armed and often fanatical people with guns on our city streets with the clear intent to take away American freedoms, bad things can happen. Just because there has not yet been a pitched battle in the streets doesn’t mean there can’t or won’t be one at some point, and frankly, nothing would make Trump happier. That’s why he keeps doing this – he’s desperately looking for something, anything that will validate his racist nonsense, allow him to seize more power, and at the same time keep the Epstein conversation off the front page. And I’m sure there are many other reasons as well, but these are certainly near the top.
I am not distracted, and I am not afraid. My thoughts are with the people of Portland, and I sincerely hope that when the troops arrive, Portland’s civic leaders have plenty of mulch for them to spread, and every soldier gets the opportunity to put down their gun and pick up a rake or shovel instead.
Trump wants violence, but I sincerely hope he’ll have to settle for a whole lot of amateur landscaping instead.
Brett Pransky is a writer, a teacher, a father, and a husband, but rarely in that order. He spends his days amplifying the voices of freedom and democracy as an Editor right here at The Political Voices Network, and he spends his nights trying to fix the world one clever sentence at a time.